With the increasing popularity of electronics such as desktop computers, laptop computers, and handheld devices such as smart phones and PDA's, communication networks are becoming an increasingly popular means of exchanging data of various types and sizes for a variety of applications. One set of networking technologies, namely Ethernet, has been particularly successful with regard to deployment in local area networks (LANs) and has made networking useful and affordable to individual and business customers of all levels and sizes. Everyday more and more devices are being equipped with Ethernet interfaces and Ethernet is increasingly being utilized to carry information of all types and sizes including voice, data, and multimedia. Due to the ubiquity of Ethernet in LANs, the advantages of using Ethernet in wide area networks are being recognized and Efforts such as Ethernet in the First Mile IEEE 802.3ah seek to realize these advantages. As the role of Ethernet expands to networks of all topologies and/or technologies, however, equipment manufacturers, service providers, and network administrators are presented with new economic and technological challenges.
Further limitations and disadvantages of conventional and traditional approaches will become apparent to one of skill in the art, through comparison of such systems with some aspects of the present invention as set forth in the remainder of the present application with reference to the drawings.